FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A shoplifting suspect, apparently out of options after being confronted by employees, smeared poop in their faces, police said. Marisol Toribio, 32, was arrested Tuesday by Coral Springs police. According to court documents, Toribio was caught stealing from Macy's, so she pulled some poop out of her pants and smeared it on the faces of the loss prevention employees who confronted her. Toribio appeared in bond court Wednesday morning. She faces theft charges, plus a charge of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

Portugal's conservative president has said he is reluctantly ratifying a law allowing gay marriage, making the predominantly Roman Catholic country the sixth in Europe to let same-sex couples wed. President Anibal Cavaco Silva said he would not veto the bill because majority liberal politicians would only overturn his decision.

Interesting chart that shows US wealth by religious denomination. I can't say that I'm surprised that Jews (46% with income $100K or above) and Hindus (43% with income $100K or above) are at the top. Us "unaffiliated" types are at 19%, right around the national average, as we tend to get both the research scientists, as well as the guys who live in their parents basements watching Star Trek. Talk amongst yourselves, but, as always, keep it civil.

States in New England top a new set of rankings, while the South still lags. If you want to be healthy, live in Vermont--or at least act like you do. It is the healthiest state in the country, according to a new report from the nonprofit United Health Foundation.

When Nick Griffin told BBC One’s Question Time that he found “the sight of two men kissing in public a bit creepy”, he may have been thinking about a traumatic adolescent experience. In an interview with The Times, Mr Griffin claimed that a former deputy leader of the National Front (NF) offered sex to him when he was still a teenager.

America is not a Christian nation. We are, it is true, a nation founded by Christians, and according to a 2008 survey, 76 percent of us continue to identify as Christian (still, that's the lowest percentage in American history). Of course, we are not a Hindu—or Muslim, or Jewish, or Wiccan—nation, either. A million-plus Hindus live in the United States, a fraction of the billion who live on Earth. But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each...

TUESDAY, Aug. 11 (HealthDay News) -- It's no secret that men don't like to go to the doctor, but new research finds they're especially likely to stay home if they're big on being macho. Middle-aged men who are most devoted to traditional beliefs about masculinity are half as likely as other men to get routine medical care, researchers report.

Mark Cuban suggested this month that some enterprising author write a book called “No One Has a Clue What Is Going On and the Whole World Is Guessing.” His comment captured the spirit of barely controlled chaos around the markets after Labor Day, even before Lehman Brothers Holdings, American International Group, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group were making their guest-star appearances in the financial tumult.

New Jersey has lost population in recent decades because low-income residents are fleeing to states with a reduced cost of living, while those moving into the Garden State are generally better educated and earn higher salaries, according to a Princeton University study released today.

Crown Heights will see its first-ever Straight Pride Parade this weekend. So how do the homos feel? By Jaime Jordan Reggae artists on the Taking Care Of Our Own Productions (myspace.com/tcooo) label are planning a Straight Pride Parade for Sunday 31 at 10am, starting at Church and Flatbush Avenues in Crown Heights and continuing down Bob Marley Avenue. It was organized in response to accusations made by gay activists, specifically Peter Tatchell, founder of the activist group OutRage!, that certain reggae songs, including Stapler’s “Hit Them Hard,” incite violence against gays. “The issue is not homophobia,” explains Tatchell. “It is...

You start a blog, get noticed almost immediately, and — within two months — have a six-figure book deal. That’s every white person’s dream. How can anyone make such a broad statement with certainty? Well, just that happened to Christian Lander — whose blog and book share the title Stuff White People Like — and he says so. And it’s not so broad a statement as it might seem. When Lander says “white person,” he doesn’t just mean “checks ‘white/Caucasian’ on the affirmative-action info box.” In fact, the Stuff White People Like Facebook quiz — with such questions as “What...

The rich man in his castle, The poor man at his gate, God made them, high or lowly, And order'd their estate. The 1982 Episcopal Hymnal omits that stanza, the second of Mrs. Alexander’s original six (not counting the refrain). It also omits her fifth: The tall trees in the greenwood, The meadows where we play, The rushes by the water, We gather every day … Understandable, in both cases. The fifth stanza might possibly be re-cast for a modern child (the hymn comes from Mrs. Alexander’s 1848 Hymns for Little Children), perhaps along lines like: The Xbox and the...

Census Bureau says New Orleans is the fastest-growing large city in the nation, recovering from being wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- After being pummeled by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans is showing signs of recovery - ranking as the fastest-growing large city in the nation, according to a government report released Thursday. The Census Bureau said New Orleans' population rose 13.8%, to 239,124, in the year ended July 1, 2007. That was a faster growth rate than any other city with a population of 100,000 or more.

A high court in South Africa ruled on Wednesday that Chinese-South Africans will be reclassified as “black,” a term that includes black Africans, Indians and others who were subject to discrimination under apartheid. As a result of this ruling, Chinese will be able to benefit from government affirmative action policies aimed at undoing the effects of apartheid.

Hanoi - Vietnam's central bank devalued the country's currency by nearly 2 per cent Wednesday and raised interest rates to fight rising trade deficits and inflation. The bank lowered the official exchange rate of the Vietnamese to 16,461 to the dollar, from the previous peg of 16,139. The black market exchange rate had jumped to over 18,000 over the weekend, before falling back to about 17,300 Wednesday, with the high rates driven by worries over inflation and the trade deficit. The bank also raised the prime interest rate from 11 to 13 per cent, the third increase this year. Prime...

Just when it seemed on the last Tuesday of the presidential primary season that Hillary Clinton would bow to the inevitable, she enraged Democrats who expected her to start strengthening Barack Obama as their party's nominee. During a conference call between Clinton and other New York members of Congress, Rep. Nydia Velazquez suggested that only an Obama-Clinton ticket could secure the Hispanic vote. "I am open to it," Clinton replied, according to several sources.

American rap music is an industry ruled by machismo. It is a place where reputations are made by shady pasts, the aura of violence and ultra-masculinity. But now an explosive new book is lifting the lid on one of hip hop's most unexpected secrets: that many people in the business are gay.

lbert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired — and arguably corrupted — millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died. He was 102. Hofmann died Tuesday at his home in Burg im Leimental, said Doris Stuker, a municipal clerk in the village near Basel where Hofmann moved following his retirement in 1971. For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention. "I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he once said. The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938...

Exchange: HBO's 'John Adams' (Part 3) Two scholars of early U.S. history debate the high-profile miniseries with its writer. John Patrick Diggins, Kirk Ellis, and Steven Waldman , The New Republic Published: Monday, March 24, 2008 HBO's seven-part miniseries, John Adams, based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning book about America's second president, premiered last weekend. The New Republic asked historian John Patrick Diggins and author Steven Waldman to critique the series. Click here to see their discussion of Parts 1 and 2. This week, Kirk Ellis, the series' writer and co-executive producer, will be joining the discussion. Below, Waldman kicks...

Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella, who turned such literary works as "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain" into acclaimed movies, has died. He was 54. Minghella's death was confirmed Tuesday by his agent, Judy Daish. No other details were immediately available. "The English Patient," the 1996 World War II drama, won nine Academy Awards, including best director for Minghella, best picture and best supporting actress for Juliette Binoche. Based on the celebrated novel by Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje, the movie tells of a burn victim's tortured recollections of his misdeeds in time of war. Minghella (pronounced min-GELL'-ah)...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Dina Matos McGreevey knows too well what it's like to be a shell-shocked wife, standing by her man, as he confesses his sexual indiscretions on live television. Unlike former Gov. James McGreevey, who told the country he was "a gay American" and would resign in 2004, New York Gov. Elliot Spitzer on Monday neither acknowledged paying high-priced call girls for their services nor offered to resign. He did, however, admit disappointing his family as news reports linked him to a high-end prostitution ring.

A New Jersey Senate leader said he will push legislation to punish businesses who knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney said his decision comes after a federal judge upheld an Arizona law that prohibits businesses from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants and yanks the business licenses of those that do.

NATO's future is at stake in Afghanistan, warned Asia's senior statesman, and unless America's European allies abandon appeasement and the United States realizes Afghanistan cannot succeed as a democracy, the world balance of power will shift in favor of Russia and China. In an exclusive interview with United Press International, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, long known as the Kissinger of the orient, took the Europeans to task for balking at casualties in Afghanistan. He blamed "short memories" that have forgotten that "America came to rescue them in two world wars," which has rekindled the "appeasement" of the 1930s. The United...

The collapse of Rudy Giuliani’s presidential bid is surely one of the most striking developments of the 2008 campaign. Strategic mistake? I don’t think so. Rudy lost because he dissed social conservatives. In fact, the reason Giuliani missed those early primaries is because he dissed social conservatives. Giuliani’s attempt to take apart and reconstitute Ronald Reagan’s winning political coalition was his original sin. And Rudy’s primal transgression continues to shape the dynamics of 2008’s Republican presidential race. With Reagan’s erstwhile coalition now cast out of the garden of amity, only recognizing and understanding Rudy’s fault will allow us to find...

Dubai is investing $600m in one of the poorest counties in the US to set up a manufacturing and distribution complex that would serve as a major logistical hub for North America. The long-term aim, according to people familiar with the deal, is to take advantage of a new generation of larger merchant ships passing from Asia through the soon to be widened Panama Canal and docking at ports such as Charleston and Savannah, seen as future primary gateways to the US. The project is being handled by Jafza, a unit of the government-owned Dubai World group, which has bought...

China's trade surplus rose by nearly 50 per cent to a record $262bn in 2007, but import growth exceeded export growth in each of the final three months of the year, suggesting that the period of huge expansion of the controversial surplus might be drawing to a close. In another first, the European Union also replaced the US as China's largest export market. Sales to the expanded EU rose 29.2 per cent in 2007, compared with just 14 per cent to the US - though Europe's bilateral deficit remains much lower than that of the US because it exports more...

When Kevin Lin reached the finish line of a 250km ''ultra-marathon'' in Ant-arctica last year, he wrapped himself in his national flag. It wasn't for warmth. ''I'm proud to represent my country at such a moment - it's as simple as that,'' he says. The Taiwanese endurance athlete, now 31, was the overall champion in the Four Deserts series of races through some of the harshest terrain in the world. Lin is a national hero. His compatriots love him for winning, and for doing it in the name of their country. They have nicknamed the slightly built, ascetic-looking young runner...

For Parisians there is no more sacred space in the history of their city than Les Halles, the old central market at the heart of the Right Bank, near the Seine to the south and the Grands Boulevards to the north. A market has stood here in one form or another since the 12th century, when dockers heaved wine, meat and other goods from the barges that regularly queued up the Seine. The area was first known as Les Champeaux but got its nickname Les Halles because chacun y allait (“everybody went there”). It reached its apogee in the 19th...

New Jersey has the most millionaire households in the country, according to a marketing company's fifth annual ranking. The Garden State moved up from No. 2 in 2005 and 2006 to No. 1 last year on the index, compiled by Phoenix Affluent Marketing Service, which does research for companies that sell luxury products, investments and the like to the wealthy. According to the service, in 2007, 7.12 percent of New Jersey's 3.2 million households had a total of $1 million or more liquid or investable assets. That includes items such as savings, stocks and bonds, precious metals, the cash value...

"It will be like jumping into cold water." That was the parting shot from my high school classics teacher when, some 15 years ago, I told him I would be leaving Italy to attend university in London. Much to my surprise, that bookish man, whose knowledge of foreign lands had largely been confined to the ancient empires of Homer and Cicero, was right. For me, decamping to an unfamiliar culture and mastering a non-native tongue did have the destabilising effect of being thrust into a pool of icy water. Now imagine starting off as an immigrant not, as I did,...

In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private research group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics. The study drew harsh criticism even before it came out. The American Society of Criminology launched a pre-emptive strike Friday, issuing a statement attacking it as "an irresponsible misuse" of crime data. The 14th annual "City Crime Rankings: Crime in Metropolitan America" was published by CQ Press, a unit of Congressional Quarterly Inc. It is based on the FBI's Sept. 24 crime statistics report....

After several days at sea, I have begun to suspect that the US may be in worse shape than I thought. Not only does our economy need imported oil and foreign capital to prosper. It also could be developing a dependence on the kindness of strangers. I left dry land because my mother decided to celebrate her 70th birthday by inviting her children and grandchildren on a cruise – a five-day voyage from Bayonne, New Jersey, to Bermuda and back. Having grown up in the Long Island suburbs of New York, I viewed cruises as the vacation equivalent of a...

Black children left out of Irish schools By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 41 minutes ago Almost all the children who could not find elementary school places in a Dublin suburb this year were black, the government said Monday, highlighting Ireland's problems integrating its increasingly diverse population. The children will attend a new, all-black school, a prospect that educators called disheartening. About 90 children could not find school places in the north Dublin suburb of Balbriggan , a town of more than 10,000 people with two elementary schools. Local educators called a meeting over the weekend for parents struggling...

The end may be near for the immigration laws that turned little Riverside Township into one of the nation's unfriendliest zip codes for illegal immigrants. In a move yesterday that came as a surprise to residents who have seen the Burlington County town's longtime Brazilian residents leave en masse, officials announced they will move tonight to repeal the ordinances that sought to penalize employers and landlords for hiring and housing illegal immigrants. The move comes a month after a federal judge in Pennsylvania struck down a similar but harsher law enacted by Hazleton, a coal-mining community near the Poconos. Riverside...

The horrific, execution-style killing of three teens in Newark last weekend has sparked widespread outrage and promises of reform from politicians, religious leaders, and community activists, who are pledging a renewed campaign against the violence that plagues New Jersey’s largest city. But much of the reaction, though well-intentioned, misses the point. Behind Newark’s persistent violence and deep social dysfunction is a profound cultural shift that has left many of the city’s children growing up outside the two-parent family—and in particular, growing up without fathers. Decades of research tell us that such children are far likelier to fail in school and...

Out here in California, we’re a little puzzled by the kerfuffle back east over “comprehensive immigration reform,” whatever that is. The great internecine ruckus among Chimpy McHitler, John McCain, Trent Lott, Lindsey Graham, Jon Kyl, Mitch McConnell, and a bunch of other senators not named Feinstein or Boxer means absolutely nothing to us. Why, just the other day some senator from Wyoming named Craig Thomas apparently died and we all said: Who? Anything the Republican party — almost extinct in the Golden State — wants to do to sink itself nationally is just fine with us. You see, despite what...

NEW YORK - NBC News is dropping "Dateline NBC" anchor Stone Phillips in a cost-cutting move when his contract expires at the end of June. Phillips won't formally be replaced. His co-anchor, Ann Curry, will continue and other "Dateline NBC" reporters will serve as on-air hosts when the newsmagazine presents stories they're working on, the network said Tuesday. "It's been a wonderful 15 years," Phillips said in a statement issued by NBC. "I'm profoundly appreciative of the many friends and colleagues, past and present, who have been a part of the `Dateline' family. This is a great news division with...

Gore Vidal is ensconced in his wheelchair in a corner of the Mandarin Grill, Martini at his elbow, by the time I run up the stairs of Hong Kong’s most venerable hotel to meet him. Daren Simkin, his young assistant, has got there before me with his charge and is nursing a beer on the far side of the table. I am eager to know what the famously witty Vidal is really like, but his clothes - grey suit, Paisley tie - and his imperturbably regal manner, disturbed only by a loose quiff of white hair, give nothing away. His...

<p>Wednesday night on ABC-TV, two televangelists took on nonbelievers from the Rational Response Squad in a bid to prove the existence of God (see "Nightline Face Off" on ABCNews.com).</p>
<p>The TV polemics come in the wake of a rash of bestselling books by atheists challenging religion.</p>

Whether a Democrat or a Republican is elected in 2008, the time is ripe for a reassertion of the traditional Republican way of war in America. By that I mean the approach to foreign policy of pre-neo-conservative Republicans such as Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Colin Powell - an approach that US President George W. Bush and the neo-conservatives have rejected in favour of a disastrous strategy inspired by cold war Democrats. Neo-conservatives are far more likely to praise Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy than to quote Eisenhower or Nixon, and with good reason. Most are ex-Democrats,...

The wit of Oscar Wilde is often more clever than insightful, but when he declared that “one’s first duty in life is to assume a pose”, he may have been on to something: clothes don’t just make the man; they can, if unchanging in style and sufficiently de trop, make him look ageless. This, at least, is the impression left by Tom Wolfe as he blazes through the culinary empyrean of Café Boulud on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, trailing dash and élan among the stolidly well-heeled and sourly superannuated diners. The writer who pioneered reporting with the intensity of literature,...

Dancin’, Yeah Prayin’ for this moment to last. By John Derbyshire For proponents of the theory that everything in the world exists for some good reason, disco music must present a conundrum. What higher purpose could possibly be served by this vapid, thrumping, affectless sound, dragging in its wake a subculture of narcissism, pill-popping, promiscuity both straight and gay, cheesy light shows, and the worst male clothing styles since slashed doublets and neck ruffs went out? Disco was so mockable it had barely got started before it was mocking itself — remember “Disco Duck”? The answer to the first of...

The mayor of the Japanese city of Nagasaki was shot to death in a brazen attack Tuesday by an organized crime chief apparently enraged that the city refused to compensate him after his car was damaged at a public works construction site, news agencies reported. The shooting was rare in a country where handguns are strictly banned and only four politicians are known to have been killed since World War II. Mayor Iccho Ito, 61, was shot twice in the back at point-blank range outside a train station Tuesday evening, Nagasaki police official Rumi Tsujimoto said. One of the bullets...

Mexico City's assembly on Thursday voted for the first time in the country's history to legally recognize gay civil unions, a measure that will provide same-sex couples with benefits similar to those of married couples. The mayor was expected to sign the measure into law. The bill, which does not approve gay marriage, allows same-sex couples to register their union with civil authorities, granting them inheritance and pension rights, as well as other social benefits. Lawmakers were still finalizing the details. Heterosexual couples who are not legally married can also be registered under the legislation. The bill was severely criticized...

While some New Jersey towns have worked to make life more difficult for illegal immigrants, Edison is considering a policy that would prevent its police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. The Middlesex County township, whose population is one-third Asian, is mulling a written "no-coordination policy," prohibiting township police officers from informing federal authorities about an individual's immigration status, and from assisting or cooperating with federal immigration investigations.